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Society Economized: T.R 1 Society economized: T.R. Ashworth and the history of the social sciences in Australia* Michael Crozier Department of Political Science University of Melbourne Among the various social sciences, sociology was the late starter in the Australian academy. At the two oldest universities distinct sociology programs were only established in the 1990s though sociology had been on offer much earlier in the century at both Sydney and Melbourne. This article investigates the circumstances and reasons behind this disjuncture, linking it to the success of Australian economics in the interwar period and beyond. The fate of sociology at Melbourne is utilised to illustrate the connection. The writings of the Melbourne businessman, T.R. Ashworth and his enigmatically worded bequest to promote sociology at Melbourne are highlighted to underscore what was at stake: the leadership of the social sciences. At the two oldest universities in Australia—the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne—sociology has only recently become an independent discipline of study. While sociological studies had been offered in other departments for some time, it was only during the1990s that distinct sociological programs were established at these two institutions. This contemporary development however has a long history. For a period of time after the Great War, sociology was offered as an undergraduate subject at the University of Melbourne. By the end of the 1920s however, sociology had all but vanished from the University curriculum.1 A similar story can be told about sociology at the University of Sydney though with an afterlife in the Department of Anthropology.2 Moreover, sociology as an independent discipline in the Australian academy only reappeared in the late 1950s with the establishment of a chair in sociology at the University of New South Wales.3 Yet this is not indicative of a lack of sociological research focusing on Australian society in the intervening period. Indeed, quite the contrary was the case.4 This is especially notable in regard to the impact of those intellectuals with social science inclinations in the planning and management of postwar reconstruction.5 This article revisits the question of sociology as the odd discipline out in the Australian academy. Anthropology, economics, demography, political science and psychology began to find their disciplinary feet in the interwar years, even if the latter three only came fully into their own after the war. To the extent that history was considered a social science, it and economics began to flourish as distinct disciplines in the interwar period. The ascendancy of economics in particular says a good deal about the cogency of its analytical capacities for the Australian predicament at the time.6 By contrast, it would appear that the early efforts in sociology, especially at Melbourne, were analytically weak and conceptually deficient. But these inadequacies are only one, albeit important, aspect of the sociology story. The rise of economics is a crucial yet under- examined dimension in sociology’s belated history in the Australian academy. While this involves issues relating to the historical sociology of Australian development, the main concern of this article is to highlight the connection in terms of competing approaches to the 2 ‘problem of society’. This entailed differing forms of conceptualisation and analytical reach as well as the grail of social science leadership. These themes will be pursued with special attention to the fate of sociology and economics at the University of Melbourne in the interwar years. Economics at Melbourne epitomised the professionalisation of the discipline, while the brief experience of sociology soured the ground for many years. However the case for sociology was not completely forsaken. In 1935 a little known Melbourne businessman Thomas Ramsden Ashworth died leaving a bequest to the University. The terms of the bequest stated that the annual income generated be used to establish ‘a Professorship or Lectureship on some subject or subjects in connection with sociology but excluding economics’.7 Ashworth’s enigmatic caveat against economics summons a convoluted string of circumstances in which the two disciplines were entwined. But it also points to the rivalry between two different approaches to society, both of which linked together social scientific research, public policy and social development. Sociology and Economics: a tangled story Helen Bourke has traced the beginnings of sociology in Australia in the first decades of this century until its suspension in the late 1920s.8 She highlights the early calls for the teaching of sociology, especially those made by Professor Francis Anderson and Professor R.F. Irvine at the University of Sydney. On the eve of the First World War, Anderson and Irvine argued the case for sociology as a worthwhile addition to the University’s Arts syllabus. Both were imbued with the understanding of sociology as the integrating discipline of the social sciences, the ‘queen’ that draws the various social sciences into a unified science of society. The insight offered by disciplines like economics remained partial and inadequate unless incorporated into a broader science of society. While retaining a strong sense of its humanistic duties, Anderson and Irvine maintained that the collection and analysis of ‘hard’ social data should underpin sociology. The fundamental riddle for sociology was to explain the ‘fact’ of society, its genesis and future development. In general terms, exactly what the scientific investigation of social development or social progress meant remained vague. In the Australian context, it was most certainly coloured by the sense of being inside a ‘social laboratory’, the experience of a progressive liberal experiment in ‘state socialism’ in the decade after Federation in 1901. Anderson, Irvine, and others rued the lack of analysis of this pioneering social experiment. While Australia had seemingly come to lead the way in practical social and political reform, it had failed to generate any systematic analysis of these reforms. If nothing else, this gap between progressive social action and the dearth of sociological inquiry begged Anderson and Irvine’s case for the propagation of sociology in Australia.9 By the end of the 1920s, a number of critical evaluations appeared, marking the beginnings of a genre now expansive albeit varied in quality.10 The fate of sociology as a distinct discipline was far less propitious. Sociology was established as a course of study at Melbourne towards the end of the Great War under the auspices of the University of Melbourne Extension Board and the Workers Education Association (WEA). In 1918 Meredith Atkinson was appointed its first director. Atkinson had been director of WEA tutorial classes at Sydney University since 1914. When he assumed his position at Melbourne he became the first ‘self-styled’ professor of sociology in Australia. His conception of sociology was more concerned with the discussion of economic and political issues than with systematic sociological analysis.11 Atkinson’s time as director was not a success and he resigned in 1922. John Alexander Gunn was appointed to 3 replace him, arriving in Melbourne in 1924.12 Recollections by former students and colleagues report that the content of the sociology course in the 1920s was a jumble of wild generalisations and ‘second-hand facts’. Gunn’s approach was a mixture of political philosophy, rudimentary economic history, social psychology and eugenics. And like Atkinson before him, Gunn was not the most agreeable personality. The program was thus bedevilled with disaffection emanating from university staff and students, and its administration was troubled by University/WEA politics. It was finally taken over by William Macmahon Ball in the late 1920s, and transformed into a course on political philosophy. In short, sociology was in many respects stillborn in the pre-war period, the whole experience bequeathing ‘sociology’ a bad name in Melbourne circles for decades to follow.13 Matching sociology’s fraught story is the rise of economics. From the 1920s onwards the economics discipline in Australia went from strength to strength, taking a leading role in social research and public policy.14 It was during this time that academic economists became renowned figures in public life, especially in public service on behalf of the Federal government.15 One of the most prominent was Douglas Berry Copland who was appointed to the newly established Chair of Commerce at Melbourne in 1924. Copland was an energetic promoter and publicist of the discipline of economics inside and outside the academy. A highly driven and ambitious man, he could impress with charm but also arouse hostility with his forceful personality. He played a leading role on numerous key government committees and commissions, state and federal, from the late 1920s onwards. He was appointed Australian Minister to China in 1946 and became the inaugural Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (1948-1953). Further foreign appointments followed and in his final working years he was a central figure the establishment of the Australian Administrative Staff College.16 In the interwar period he was the Australian representative (social sciences) for the Rockefeller Foundation, an important source of research funding at the time.17 His name was synonymous with the ‘Melbourne School’ of Economics, which became a major recruiting ground
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